US judge to check on man forcibly medicated in terror case

RALEIGH, N.C. â€” A federal judge is checking whether a mentally ill North Carolina man accused of trying to join al-Qaida-linked fighters in Syria has improved after nearly a year of forced medication.

U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle wants to eyeball Basit Sheikh on Thursday. An appeals court ruled in June that Sheikh should be forcibly injected with anti-psychotic medication so he can be made competent to defend himself against prosecution.

Sheikh is from suburban Raleigh and has been described as suffering from schizophrenia.

He’s charged with providing material support to a terrorist group for attempting to join Jabhat al-Nusra militants in 2013. He was detained in an FBI sting to find and arrest Americans before they left for Syria to fight in that country’s civil war.